https://www.koin.com/news/health/un...ise-alcohol-and-caffeine-impact-on-sleep/amp/
University of Washington discovers ‘surprise’ alcohol and caffeine impact on sleep

Any Italian could tell you this. Why do you think we put sambuca in our espresso?

 

Humans have ‘large, negative impact on wildlife,’ researchers find
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/ot...pact-on-wildlife-researchers-find/ar-AA1lh582

Researchers pinpointed several leading reasons for animal injuries, including human disturbances such as collisions with vehicles, injuries and illness; predators; and poisonous substances.

Nearly 40 percent of all cases were caused by humans, and vehicle collisions were the main cause of injury, affecting 12 percent of animals admitted, the study says. Other dangers included fishing, collisions with buildings or windows, and run-ins with domesticated dogs and cats, researchers found. Reptiles suffered the highest proportion of human-caused rehab admissions.

Overall, human activities have “a large, negative impact on wildlife,” the researchers concluded.

 

Armed robber committed another armed robbery after compassionate release, authorities say​

Bond had served 26 years of his sentence of 46 years and 10 months for bank robbery and firearms offenses between 1985 and 1995 and was out on supervised release — but if convicted of the new alleged crimes he faces life in prison.

 

It Sure Looks Like Phones Are Making Students Dumber
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/it-sure-looks-like-phones-are-making-students-dumber/ar-AA1lIX7i

 

Sorry, but I don’t see that as obvious at all. Used the right way, any student could improve their grades, as well as their learnings by its use.

 

Sorry, but I don’t see that as obvious at all. Used the right way, any student could improve their grades, as well as their learnings by its use.

These are kids. Yes, it's obvious (to most of us IMO) that any sort of distraction is bad for learning in the classroom or in life in general. When I was a kid it was the marbles, spinning tops and ball cards we needed to put away and for us to stop talking to each other so we could listen to the teacher and concentrate on the lesson on the blackboard.

https://www.oecd.org/pisa/PISA 2022 Insights and Interpretations.pdf

The use of phones and other digital devices can also impact classroom learning. On average across OECD countries, 65% of students reported being distracted by using digital devices in at least some maths lessons. The proportion topped 80% in Argentina, Brazil, Canada*, Chile, Finland, Latvia*, Mongolia, New Zealand* and Uruguay. Just as importantly, across the OECD, 59% of students said their attention was diverted due to other students using phones, tablets or laptops in at least some maths lessons. Interestingly, only 18% of students in Japan and 32% in Korea reported this level of distraction. Tellingly, digital distraction has a strong association with learning outcomes. Students who reported being distracted by other students using digital devices in some, most or every maths class scored 15 points lower in PISA maths tests than those who barely experienced this. This represents the equivalent of threequarters of a year’s worth of education, even after accounting for students’ and schools’ socio-economic profile.

 

that any sort of distraction is bad for learning in the classroom or in life in general.

The way I see it is that the teachers and administration are stupid if they allow students to play on their phones in the classroom.

 

The way I see it is that the teachers and administration are stupid if they allow students to play on their phones in the classroom.

It's not just the classroom. Smart phones are designed to be a distraction by some very smart people. I do agree that dumber (as in the loss of intellectual potential) is the wrong wording, it makes them mentally lazy by feeding them mental sugar and caffeine instead of building mental strength with learning exercises.

It's a lack of inclination to do so, not the loss of raw ability.
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/691462
Brain Drain: The Mere Presence of One’s Own Smartphone Reduces Available Cognitive Capacity

A more limited body of work explores the cognitive consequences of smartphone-related distractions in the absence of behavioral interaction (i.e., when consumers consciously think about phone-related stimuli, but do not actually use their phones). Research on the attentional cost of receiving cellphone notifications indicates that awareness of a missed text message or call impairs performance on tasks requiring sustained attention, arguably because unaddressed notifications prompt message-related (and task-unrelated) thoughts (Stothart, Mitchum, and Yehnert 2015). Related research shows that individuals who hear their phones ring while being separated from them report decreased enjoyment of focal tasks as a consequence of increased attention to phone-related thoughts (Isikman et al. 2016). Forced separation from one’s ringing phone can also increase heart rate and anxiety and decrease cognitive performance (Clayton, Leshner, and Almond 2015). To our knowledge, only one prior study has investigated the cognitive effects of the mere presence of a mobile device—one that is not ringing, buzzing, or otherwise actively interfering with a focal task. Thornton et al. (2014, 485–86) found that a visually salient cellphone can impair performance on tasks requiring sustained attention by eliciting awareness of the “broad social and informational network … that one is not part of at the moment.” Together, these investigations of phone-related distractions provide evidence that mobile devices can adversely affect cognitive performance even when consumers are not actively using them. Similar to earlier research on distracted driving and learning while multitasking, however, these studies connect the cognitive costs of smartphones to their (remarkable) ability to attract the conscious orientation of attention. When individuals interact with or think about their phones rather than attend to the task at hand, their performance suffers.

They can be like drugs in the pocket of a drug addict. All they can think about is the next fix.

 

Can't provide a link, since it's something that I just saw on TV news in a story about the Alaska Airlines plane that lost the door plug.

Anchor: "We've learned that this plane was made in the same factory that makes other Boeing airplanes."

Gee, I wonder how much deeper their investigative reporting could get!

 

The way I see it is that the teachers and administration are stupid if they allow students to play on their phones in the classroom.

Much easier said than done. It's one thing to have a policy of no cell phones. Quite another to enforce it. You are trying to present material to the class and don't have time to constantly be surveying the room to see who has pulled out their phone and has it in their lap. Also, many students access course material via their phone. Others use it to capture audio or take pictures of the whiteboard (neither of which is an effective way to learn material).

 

Can't provide a link, since it's something that I just saw on TV news in a story about the Alaska Airlines plane that lost the door plug.

Anchor: "We've learned that this plane was made in the same factory that makes other Boeing airplanes."

Gee, I wonder how much deeper their investigative reporting could get!

When I was going thru my news feeds the other day, I saw one that claimed that a window had blown up* and another that claimed that the "hull" had ruptured.

*Yes "blown up" not out.

 

The Misguided War on the SAT
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/07/briefing/the-misguided-war-on-the-sat.html

After the Covid pandemic made it difficult for high school students to take the SAT and ACT, dozens of selective colleges dropped their requirement that applicants do so. Colleges described the move as temporary, but nearly all have since stuck to a test-optional policy. It reflects a backlash against standardized tests that began long before the pandemic, and many people have hailed the change as a victory for equity in higher education.

Now, though, a growing number of experts and university administrators wonder whether the switch has been a mistake. Research has increasingly shown that standardized test scores contain real information, helping to predict college grades, chances of graduation and post-college success. Test scores are more reliable than high school grades, partly because of grade inflation in recent years.

 

Much easier said than done. It's one thing to have a policy of no cell phones. Quite another to enforce it. You are trying to present material to the class and don't have time to constantly be surveying the room to see who has pulled out their phone and has it in their lap. Also, many students access course material via their phone. Others use it to capture audio or take pictures of the whiteboard (neither of which is an effective way to learn material).

 

Workplace Wellness Programs Have Little Benefit, Study Finds
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/15/health/employee-wellness-benefits.html

 

'It hasn't delivered': The spectacular failure of self-checkout technology
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/articl...ectacular-failure-of-self-checkout-technology

 

Common Sense May Not Be Commonly Shared, Sociologists Find
https://www.newsweek.com/common-sense-not-shared-sociology-1860807

 

Common Sense May Not Be Commonly Shared, Sociologists Find
https://www.newsweek.com/common-sense-not-shared-sociology-1860807

A better headline would've been "Commonality of Common Sense is not so Common, After All"

 

Caves that are underground...go figure.

 

View attachment 313666

Caves that are underground...go figure.

No need to be too deep underground.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/homeless-found-living-california-caves-185957839.html

 

Extreme metal guitar skills linked to intrasexual competition, but not mating success
https://www.psypost.org/2024/01/ext...ual-competition-but-not-mating-success-221020

“However, trends within metal music, and especially the genre of extreme metal music with basically virtuoso-level guitar skills, conflict with this hypothesis. Those who enjoy extreme metal and those who produce it are statistically more likely to be male. These dynamics do not seem to be useful for purposes related to heterosexual mating.